New Arrivals / Last 2 weeks
Eleven Tension
A duo of irony, smoke, and mirrors, computer musician Tom Mudd and percussionist/violist Áron Porteleki operate at either side of the same see-saw, teetering between realms of digital and tangible soundscapes. Mudd's artistic voyage is anchored in the realm of physical modelling synthesis, an exploration of the nuanced interplay between software and improvised music, delving deep into the multifaceted realms of algorithmic composition and digital sonic artistry. Meanwhile, Porteleki's expansive…
Toon
Slovakian producer Monika Subrtova presents her first solo LP ‘Toon’ - a collection of chilly visions drawing on influences from 90s Electronica, Techno and film composition. Until recently, the majority of Subrtova’s work has been released and performed alongside Daniel Kordik under their raucous project Jamka. Whether working collaboratively or alone - Subrtova adopts the spirit of modular synthesis, allowing music to unfurl naturally through presence with the machines and progressive paramete…
Binomial Cascades
Tip! "I just released a new album as my solo project, Agencement. This is a follow-up album to 'Six Juxtaposed Works', which was released in 2017 on the Copenhagen label Tochnit Aleph. It's been about 35 years since I produced 'vinyl' by myself, so it's very emotional, although since the 1990s, it has become difficult to manufacture vinyl LPs in Japan and there were no channels to outsource overseas because I was disappointed in the situation. Musically, I think it's a further step in the direct…
Silent, Listening
Silent, Listening is a major addition to ECM’s distinguished line of solo piano recordings, featuring one of the outstanding improvising pianists and jazz masters of our time: Fred Hersch. The album features seven original creations and a handful of well-chosen standards, including Billy Strayhorn’s “Star-Crossed Lovers”, Sigmund Romberg’s “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise”, Alec Wilder’s “Winter Of My Discontent” and Russ Freeman’s “The Wind”, all played with the focus, sensitivity and gracefuln…
Gateway
With “daring and visionary spirit”, to quote a Downbeat review from the year of this album’s release, master improvisers John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette forged a unique vision of trio interplay on their first joint effort under the Gateway moniker. The trio tackles Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette originals with a visionary idea of what three-way conversations in jazz could sound like. As The Observer remarked in an article of the time, “the telepathic ensemble playing and per…
Angel Song
“Destined to go down in history as a jazz classic” was the verdict with which The Guardian greeted this album on its release in 1997, saying, “Wheeler’s compositions and four of the world’s greatest improvisers make for a tranquil set that rewards with every listening. This is beautiful, golden music.” Angel Song is among the apexes of the label’s catalogue, uniting four master-improvisers – each with a unique artistic identity – in an intimate, drummer-less quartet session. Kenny Wheeler is the…
7 Uthras
*200 copies limited edition* Second opus from MZ 412 co-founder Jouni Ollila. Ulvtharm is painting his world as a sprawling, post-apocalyptic industrial wasteland, where humanity clings to survival in the shadows of monolithic factories and decaying cities. Skies choked with ash, and a sun that seldom breaks through the omnipresent smog. Within this landscape, the Seven Uthras exist not as beings of benevolence, but as ancient, god-like entities that emanate from the darkest depths of the earth,…
Bathe In Black Light
*100 copies limited edition* The latest album from one of Sweden's most iconic ambient acts. "Bathe In Black Light" is a haunting ode to the night, to the darkness that is not blindness, to the intense tranquility and boundless inner wilderness of the void. Watch the sparkles glisten in the night, bathe in black light, for there is no light without darkness.Double Vinyl Edition in gatefold sleeve, matt lamination. 7 Tracks. Running time 55 minutes. 100 copies in Marbled grey & back.
Soul Musings
Reading Group is thrilled to present our second collaboration with the magisterial composer Carman Moore. Following the 2020 release of his gorgeous chamber soundtrack to the film "Personal Problems" (1980), "Soul Musings" is a double-CD representing Carman's innerly composerly life of the last several decades. Consisting mostly of sketched ideas, meditations, and improvisations on synthesizer or piano, this record is both an intimate portrait of the artist at home as well as spiritual gift. Dis…
Spatial Data Management (Original Score)
*100 copies limited edition* Reading Group, in collaboration with Braddock, PA-based imprint Huner Francis, is pleased to present "Spatial Data Management (Original Score)" by Ulla E. Straus and John Andrew Wilhite, a beautiful score to an equally beautiful film by Philadelphia-based artist Greyory Blake. The score to Spatial Data Management (2021) is a contemplative and referential ambient work. It provides the backdrop for the essay film’s exploration of how stolen value and the contemporary p…
Repertoire
Edition of 500 copies. Shane Parish is a member of the Bill Orcutt Quartet and Tzadik Recording Artist. Solo guitar arrangements of various jazz /avant garde/electronic/etc. tunes. Imagine: It’s sometime in the back half of the 19th century, America. You’re sitting in the parlor of your mansion, or in the only room of your shack; things are dusty and smell like sweat and hair, no matter how wealthy you may be. You don’t own a phonograph, and you don’t know who Tony Hawk is, but you have an inkli…
Timing Birds
Silvia Bolognesi - Upright Bass, Voice, Poetry, PercussionDudú Kouate - Percussion, Voice, Ngoni, KalimbaGriffin Rodriguez - Electronics, Voice
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Griffin RodriguezRecorded December 14-16, 2021 at Shape Shoppe Paradiso - Siena, Italy
Accept When
"We wrote “Accept When” between 2022 and 2023, after a long, beautiful period improvising together intimately in the safety of a friend’s practice space. Our friendship, the quality of attention that colored the light of that and all our other practice spaces, became the basis for our activity and growth as songwriters and our relationship as improvisers. Friendship, how we relate to each other, is our nucleus: the central and essential part of our movement; the positively charged central core o…
Sound Is (Our) Sustenance
Dawn choruses of waning whimpering solos were once gigantic ensembles bellowing for each other to be reproduced. Sound sustains life and light bodies, even the flickering (ones). Sound is (our) sustenance. The silence is approaching and we have nowhere to go. When spring becomes silent, this time, we are the sickness.
JayVe Montgomery: Clarinet, Flute, Voice/Text, Soprano Saxophone, Wind Synth and EffectsNick Turner: Guitar, Mellotron Micro, Wolno Piano, Effects
Matt Ciani: Wurlitzer Electric Pi…
Clearing
“Peridot dives right in, and so I will. It’s a gemstone, peridot, and may become your favorite gemstone (as it has mine since I’ve dug in to its history and cultural significance). I like volcanoes and volcanic land formations. “Peridot,” the musical piece presented here by Powers/Rolin, is soundtrack to memories of in-person witnessed lava floes and the infinite parade of Herzogian docu-footage of rivers of fire and constructive destruction. There are edits or augmentations evident, creating (o…
Reverse Bloom
On the evening of July 13th, 2023, I trekked up to Arnold Hall for a very special performance at The Stone. I sat in the front row and took out my notebook then turned to my right and looked around the space. The dimly lit room buzzed with quiet activity and conversation. After a few more minutes, the lights went even lower and out walked three shadowy figures. Each clicked on a small bulb that lit their individual music stands. This was my third time seeing the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble. T…
The Absurd Silence Of A Mute World
*300 copies limited edition* Initiated at the beginning of the year 2022, Olomuhd is a shared vision bringing together multi-instrumentalists Samuel Vaney (Cortez, Muhd, Fargue) and long time collaborator Loïc Grobety (OLO, Convulsif). Sharing a common passion for abrasive textures, deconstructed rhythms, enveloping and dense layers, this album, presented as a single track, is a distinct entity, an ageless and lush exploration, at times contemplative and airy, at times impetuous and massive. It …
Phantom Pinnacles
*300 copies limited edition* A new face in the already profound roster of Harlow MacFarlane’s (Funerary Call, Stars Without Light...) body of work, Phantom Pinnacles presents a dense Odyssey of tragic themes and long-lost moments. From the first to the last echoed fragment, Between Voices presents a fragile ambience that only exists in a reawakening memory from the forgotten corners of the mind.Vignettes of swarming synthesizers and humbled symphonies weave into off-kilter, melancholic melodies,…
Ginnungagaldr
New opus from the ever enigmatic ritual act Undirheimar. Ginnungagaldr is the result of over 3 years of contemplative, ritual and shamanic based work centered on the uncreated primordial nothingness of pre-creational chaos. Not inspired by the lore, but through personal experience, which, in fact, differs in certain aspects from the already established and published work. There is not one unique path. There are countless streams flowing toward the vast black ocean, the source. Just as there are …
Stigma
*2024 stock. 300 copies limited edition* A retrospective of artworks by Danish artist øjeRum (Paw Grabowski) exploring the complex relationship of humans and plants. Extending far back into our joint evolutionary history our deep relationship with, and understanding of, plants has enabled us to harness their nutritional, medicinal, and aesthetic benefits. Plants are central to our well-being, not only as food, but also as key components of our cultures, religions, and medicines. Through a unique…